Clarity
by RobinxRaven writer
Summary: Sometimes, important things don't hit you like a brick wall. They just make themselves apparent. After a mission gone south, Robin realizes something that had been obvious all along.


It was late. Almost three in the morning. The tower's lockdown had been initiated hours ago, and almost everyone had gone to bed.

Everyone except Robin.

Though he would normally be up keeping a watch on the surveillance cameras set up around Jump City, he had foregone that duty tonight. Something was distracting him. It was small, it was almost not important, but it still bothered him. It was an unsolved question, one that he could not for the life of him figure out the answer too.

Two months ago, a new cult had taken up residence in the dark alleyways of the Titans fair city, recruiting members and committing crimes almost everyday. Like most crazy cults, they brainwashed people and planned on world domination, robbing banks and ATM's, occasionally blowing up buildings and cars. Several members of the cult had been apprehended, but refused to talk.

The Titans had acted. It was their duty. Robin had done his best to get information from the members of the cult, but they were far too gone in the head to offer any information that could be trusted or could be considered valuable. So, they had to go to work the old fashioned way. Some days they were stopping crimes as they happened and others they were searching for the cult's leader. Whoever they were, they were certainly very good at covering their tracks.

Twice, they'd come within a hair's breadth of capturing the masked leader of the cult. Both times, they'd gotten the drop on the bad guys. Both times, they'd failed to put a stop to their plans.

The first time, they lost because they didn't know enough about the leader. They weren't expecting him to be superpowered. The Titans didn't really have a counter to telekinetic villains. So when they found him the first time, they charged at him guns blazing and ready to win. Getting flung twenty feet into the air and slammed into the ground, pillars, walls, and each other multiple times had kind of knocked the fight of them. Robin withdrew when Beastboy's arm had broken.

Raven did her best to heal him, but it was still a few weeks before they encountered the villain again. This time, Raven had cast a protective spell on herself and the others to stop his telekinesis. The fight had gone mostly according to plan, at least for a while. Sure, there were some slip ups here and there, but the important thing was that none of them were getting injured and the bad guys was starting to lose his edge.

None of them could've accounted for Slade.

Apparently, their masked adversary had been funding the cult and acting as a sort of puppet master/advisor for the leader. Just as they had been on the verge of winning the second battle, Slade and an army of his robot minions had appeared out of nowhere, completely throwing everything into total chaos.

Robin had charged at him, completely ignoring the cultist leader as he lost all composure. That had been his undoing. Already wounded from fighting his way to the cult leader, not to mention the several sleepless nights coming up with plans leading up to the Titans second attack, meant Robin had been no match for Slade. The masked villain toyed with him for a bit, taunting him and beating the young hero to a pulp before ending their fight with a swift punch straight into his solar plexus.

Robin had been captured.

That had been a week ago. When he awoke next, Robin found that he'd been stripped off all of his gadgets and chained to a wall. His gloves were missing, so he couldn't use the finger lockpick that came with it. His utility belt was also gone, along with his boots. He was stuck in a cape, a shirt, and a pair of green tights. There was an IV drip in his arm, which was supplying some kind of drug that was making it hard for him to think or move.

For seven days (give or take since he had no way of telling time), Robin had been left there. He'd been given minimal food and water; just enough to survive, but not enough to gather his strength. Slade had wanted it that way, wanted to make sure Robin knew that he had won and soon the Titans would be gone forever. He'd constantly been reminded that his friends were falling apart without him, that he'd failed to stop the cult and that the city was burning.

Robin's will might've broken if he hadn't saved the world alongside his friends in the past once before. But he knew what his friends were capable of, that his team could survive without him. He trusted them to stop whatever plan Slade had and to come rescue him.

And they did.

Or rather, _she_ did.

That's what was bothering him right now. Not because he'd been saved, but because of _how_ he'd been saved. At first, Robin thought it had been a dream. He had expected the Titans to bust through the wall with reckless abandon, fighting Slade to the last and carrying his weakened body back to the tower. But it didn't happen like that.

Raven had simply stepped out of the shadows, as though she had been there the whole time. Just her. No Cyborg or Starfire or Beastboy. Raven had come all on her own, using her magic to break the chains on his arms and teleporting them outside of Slade's new hideout. Then she used her communicator to let the others know where she was and that Robin was safe, and just a few minutes later the T-Ship was picking them up and taking them back to the tower.

After making sure he was okay (the drug Slade was using on him faded quickly, so he needed a steady supply; after a few hours of not being hooked up to a drip Robin was starting to feel fine) and having a celebratory dinner, the Titans all headed to bed.

Everyone except Robin, who was standing in the common room looking out the windows across the ocean.

He was confused. Grateful, but confused.

"You're awake."

Turning around, he saw Raven walking over to him. She came and stood beside him, crossing her arms over her chest and looking out over the ocean in a similar manner to him.

"Can't sleep." He replied. Robin kept his voice low, careful not to accidentally wake any of the other Titans. Despite the sleeping quarters distance from the common room, it wasn't uncommon for someone to be woken up in the middle night because someone was messing around the in the common room late at night.

"You're brooding." She pointed out. Raven kept her gaze on the horizon.

"How can you tell?" Robin asked, looking over at her.

"I know you." She replied with a shrug. "Do you wanna talk about whatever's bothering you?" She asked.

"How'd you know where I was?" He asked, getting straight to the point.

Raven turned to face him, one slender eyebrow raised in confusion. "What do you mean?" She asked. She lowered her arms back to her side.

"I mean, I didn't have my communicator with me, so you had no way of tracking me. I couldn't send a message or leave a trail behind because I was chained to a wall in a dungeon. How did you find me?" Robin clarified.

There was a pause, in which Raven blinked before responding. "Because we have a bond, remember?" Raven asked. "I'll always know where to find you." She said it the way one would say the sky is blue or that they lived in an enormous T; like it was a simple fact that should've been plainly obvious.

Robin didn't respond, just stared at her for a moment before turning back to gaze out the window.

Raven shifted her weight from one foot to the other, before a yawn inevitably escaped her. "Are you gonna stay up?" She asked.

"For a little while. Goodnight." He turned to see her nod, and then she walked off to go back to bed. Sighing, Robin stared off into space while he thought about what he'd just been told.

" _I know we have a bond, but… I still don't understand. How could she know how to find me, especially when we've had trouble tracking down Slade before?"_ Robin rubbed his chin whilst he remained in thought, trying to come up with an explanation.

Looking up and smiling, the answer became crystal clear. _"For the same reason I knew she wasn't gone when Trigon invaded our world. The same reason she knew I was up brooding tonight. Because she cares."_

Raising his hands over his head to stretch, Robin turned around and started heading back to his room, resolving to thank Raven properly in the morning.


End file.
